A TRIP ABROAD.

Stratford Evening Post, Volume XXXIII, Issue 3, 1 May 1912, Page 3

A TRIP ABROAD.

(By n Traveller.) There are many interesting places worth visiting in the vicinity of Look, Staffordshire. In St. Edward's churchyard there is a curiosity iii the shape of an ancient gravestone which has this (inscription: "James Robinson. Interred February 28th, 1788. Aged !38." The explanation given by old identities is that the sculptor made a mistake in cutting the 4, plastered it up with cement, and then cut the correct ago 38, and in course of time the cement dropped out! Rudyard, about two miles from Leek, is a well known holiday resort, and has an attraction in the shape i of a line lake two miles long and about! i a quarter wide. It was made over a hundred years ago for the purpose of supplying the Trent and Mersey canal. It is from this place that Rudyard Kipling, the well-read author, takes liis baptismal name. About a mile from Rudyard is the quaint old village of Elorton, often visited for its ancient church and memorials therein and in the churchyard, one of which sets forth thai Mary Brooke died 1787 aged 119 years. There is a memorial cross to the memory of George Heath, "The Moorland Poet," a young man of good promise, but who died of consumption in his 25th year. On one of the six belis in this church is inscribed. "? nto this church I do men call, and to the grave do summon ail." i

At Rushton in this district thero is an interesting old church situated on a liill from which there is a very fine viev/. On the Boor of the church is an old funeral slab dated 1610, and a large escutcheon of the Royal Arms of Queen Anne's time, with the initials "A.R." On the ceiling are painted the armorial bearings of the j ancient family of the Ti'affords. At each side of the porch stand two old stones that are said to belong to the Drtiidical age. In the churchyard is an old gravestone ahout which thero is a most wonderful history that reads like- a romance. It is to the memory of Thomas Meaykin, 1781, aged 21 years, and the story about it in that, while in service at Stone, his master's daughter betrayed an attaehment for him which came to the) father's ears. Meaykin was shortly afterwards taken ill, died, and war.'

buried at Stone. A pony of his master's of which lie had been groom, got into the churchyard and attempted en tear up the earth over the grave. Suspicions were aroused, and some friends thinking that there was some fcul J play bad his coffin exhumed, and the { body was found to have- turned over. It was then supposed that some pow- *) erful narcotic had boon administered ]| to him and that while under its inflI nonce he had been committed to the j ground. His remains were removed by I the relations to his native place here, l i ;;ml re-interred. ■Tim lloaches near Leek are n remarkable and fantastic outcrop or upheaval of rock and were so named by the French refugees j long ago. Tin's rid we is over a mile in length and about LOGO feet high, and was reached, via the old village of Meerbrook. The stone is locally known as millstone grit and looks very much like the trachite of this district. The view from the lloaches is very picI turesque, the boundaries of the farms, | which are all stone walls, appearing! like an irregular network of dark lines on a green ground. High upi on a natural platform is a large rock oo which is cut the followng inscription: "Visited by the Prince and| Princess- of Teck, August 23rd, 1872." Lie Royal Cottage, past the Ram eh aw Rocks and halfway between Peck and Buxton (six miles) is an interesting old-fashioned inn and is so called because Charles I. and Bonnie Prince Charlie had slept there. The proprietress showed me the room in which the latter slept, and I advised her to procure a good portrait of the Royal occupant with a suitable inscription and make a show place of it. Lud's church, a few miles from Leek, is a most romantic place, being a cleft in the rocks entered by a flight of steps. it is a narrow room the walls oi which are from fifty to seventy feet in height and in places perpendicular, overgrown with luxuriant ferns, etc., the widest part at the top being less than ten yards. It has no connection with the Luddites, but has with the Lollards, or followers of Wicklif. It was here they used to assemble for Divine worship, to escape persecution. In about the year L-105, when holding service, the worshippers were surprised by a party of armed men sent to arrest them, one of whom bred and shot Alice do Lud-Auk, a fine songstress and the beautiful grand daughter of Walter de Lud-Auk, the Lollards' minister. Sh: was buried with solemn ceremony elos ■ by. Near where the affray took place a wooden figure of a female has been placed. It appeared very much like the figurehead of some ship. On returning the picturesque Dane bridge ami old Ship Inn at \Viueklo were visited. The Charnet ("river of many windings") Valley is.very beautiful and interesting, and gives one a good ideii of rural England. The first station from Leek is Chedulecon , illage, which is very pretty, standing on a rising ground close to the river and canal. The old church here has a fine chime of bells, and in the sanctuary there are three sedilia, ivbicb arc niches in the walls the cushioned bottoms of which are as high as an ordinary chair from the floor, and are used now, as they were- in the days of yore, as seats for tie- clergy during c: mrch sen ice. There are three tilings that are pleasing, on account of their special charm, to visitors from the colonies and Dominion when travelling through England. They are the chiming bells, the wild (lowers,

i and the beautiful tints of the autumnal foliage in shades of yellow, russet, sienna and red. Some of the churches! contain octaves of bells upon which a great many clianges can be rung, and ; it is very pleasant to listen to them chiming on a Sabbath evening, when one can better understand the sent!--] . ment in Cowpcr's "Church-going Bell." What "sermons in stones" there are to be read in these old churchyards, and how true they arc to be sure. Here are a Few copied at different times. Epitaph on an old woman who once sold earthenware: "Beneath this stone lies Catherine

Gray, Changed from busy life to lil'docf clay. By earthenware she got her pelf, But now she's turned to earth herself. I Ye weeping friends let me adviseI Abate your tears and dry your eyes. ! Who knows, but in a run of jours, In sorac tail pitcher or broad pan She in her shop may ho again." Singular epitaph in Butterton churchyard to James Burnett (81) composed by himself: "Up to this stone Jair.es Burnett lies. There's no man knights, nor no man cries. Nor where he's gone or how he faros No man knows and no man cares." Epitaph to a chief constable of Stirling, in the west churchyard near the Castle, dated 1807: "Our life is hut a winter's day, Some only breakfast ami away. Oilier-: to dinner stay ami are full fed, The oldest man but sups and yoes to bed. Large is his bounty who lingers out the day, Ho that coos soonest has the least to pa v.

j Not far from Cheddleton is the bam--1 let of Stanley, from which the eldest sons of the Earl of Derby take their ! title. It is stated that the art of glazing earthenware by salt was acci- ! dentally discovered near this place in ! 1680. A servant girl at a farmhouse ' was boiling salt in water for curing pork and in her absence it boiled over. the earthenware pot becoming red hot. When it had cooled the vessel was found to be. glazed. Oakamoor, in the valley 'is noted for its copper works in wliich many bands are employed. The copper wire wed in the first Atlantic cable was manufactured here. Alton village is an interesting i t..... .... u ,1 „„ 4.1 ::..

" of an ancient castle which was built ' ! -by Bertram de verdon, the founder of 1 Croxden Abbev. A Roman Catholic " chapel and convent arc built on the 'i site, which makes a fine picture from '{the railway station below. These buildings were erected many year;: • ago by the Earl of Shrewsbury, and he and other members of the Talbot i ' i < 'family are lying in the chancel,. The | chapel is beautifully the al- ' j tar and rcredqs being both of alabasj tin. There is a.peculiar circular nEonc j building in the village, of the pepper j box design, which we were informed i was once used as a lock-up. The j last occupant of this "ohokec" set I fire to the straw of his bod and esI caned when the doorAvas opened. On the opposite side, of the charuet, is the famous Alton Towers mansion, the seat of the'Earl of Shrewsbury. When it was open to the public a groat number of persons need to come every season to see the beautiful gardens and surroundings. Croxden Abbey remains is reached from Rochester

j station. En route we got a view of I St. Chad's College at Donston, which j was opened in 1873. This fine public school has accommodation for 400 I hoys and has a farm of fifty acres I attached to it. The site and property surrounding the institution warthe the gift of Sir Perciva! Htywood, Bart. The abbe? ruins above referred to are most interesting. They are about forty feet high and consist of a Gothic arch, old guest-house, part of the sanctuary, etc. Near the hitter there are several old stone coffins. The abbey was dedicated to St. .Mary and was founded in 1033. The remains date from the 13th century. There is a tradition to the effect that King John's heart is buried here, his body at Worcester Cathedral, and his bowels at Croxton, in Leicestershire. The village church is close to the abbey ruins, and the afternoon service was very impressive, and to me specially linterestng as it was the first, time I had had the privilege of being present at a harvest festival in an English village church.